


heaven-sent

by joydecoy



Category: HOTSHOT (Band), Produce 101 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, i love them all so here you go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-21
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-03 06:45:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10961874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joydecoy/pseuds/joydecoy
Summary: (DISCONTINUED)You see, Woojin’s always been fascinated with soulmates since he was young.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hello, this is cy returning after a 5-month hiatus to write about produce 101 and soulmates  
> i've fallen in love with all of them so naturally, i had to write something  
> please leave nice comments/constructive criticism, and thank you so much for reading!!

You see, Woojin’s always been fascinated with soulmates since he was young. He’d always ask his mothers to tell the story of how they met, as childhood friends who fell out of contact before bumping into each other again as coworkers. The way they told their story, with starry eyes and fond smiles, made Woojin believe in a love as strong as theirs. And what a fantasy it is, really, the idea that someone out there could love you unconditionally and was made _just for you_ was so unrealistic but sounded like such a dream at the same time.

He was one of the lucky few to have a soulmark at birth, which meant that his soulmate was already born and older than him. But most importantly, it was a sure sign that they would end up together, happy for the rest of their lives, just like in those fairy tales.

The mark on his inner right wrist was a delicate moon, exquisite in its intricate and detailed design. His soulmate had the same mark too, but it was hard to tell when everyone wore bracelets and watches all the time. Love at first touch, his parents told him, so _don’t touch anyone before asking them, okay? It’s rude if you don’t._

“But really, don't think about this too much, yeah? You have all the time in the world to find your soulmate,” his mother told him with a fond smile, and he just nodded his head in reply. But that didn’t stop him from dreaming up all the possible scenarios while laying in his bed late at night. After school, he’d rush home to watch cheesy soulmate romance shows, and even saved up his money to buy the latest romance novels. Before he went to school each day, he would squeeze his eyes shut tightly and wish to whatever god out there that _please, please let today be the day he meets his soulmate._

That all fell apart, however, when he became a trainee. The sweaty practice rooms, the hectic schedules and the never-ending training was a nightmare for him, but he just gritted his teeth and dreamed of debut. What were the chances of meeting his soulmate if he was stuck in the training centre all day, much less meeting them in the music industry itself?

“Right, gather ‘round!” The manager shouts loudly. Woojin looks up from his notebook and stands up to join the other trainees. They’re a strange bunch of kids, most of them still going through awkward stages of puberty while others stand tall and broad-backed, but all chasing the same dream. The manager’s face is unusually blank, and Woojin goes through a slight breakdown inside his head.

“I’ve discussed this matter with the higher-ups already and we’ve agreed on a very, very important matter: You lucky fuckers are debuting soon!” The manager’s face splits into a wide grin, but everyone is stunned into silence. The disbelief, the shock, the pure joy that they go through at that moment is possibly the best feeling in the world. Sure enough, the room fills with shrieks and shouts of _we’re going to make it we’re finally going to debut we’re gonna make it big we-_

“...But before that, we’re gonna send some of you to compete in the new season of Produce 101 so that you’ll get a fanbase before debut. These people will start to train for their first performance, while the others will start to train for their debut, starting tomorrow.” Groans are mixed with cheers. Going on Produce 101 definitely meant more fans, but a longer time to debut. Woojin didn’t mind really, as long as he was out there on stage sooner or later.

“The people we have chosen to join Produce 101 are: Lee Daehwi, Park Woojin, Im Youngmin, and Kim Donghyun. These four, please stay back for a while. The others have the rest of the day off,” the manager continues. The whole world crashes around Woojin even when everyone cheers again.

The other boys are ecstatic of course, and they get even busier with the preparation ahead. To show off their talents, they compose and arrange a new song from Got7, and Woojin even gets the chance to choreograph their dance.

It’s the night before they move out of their dorms and into the new ones for Produce 101, but it’s also the last day before they have to showcase their performance to almost a hundred trainees and a panel of judges. The glow-in-the-dark clock shows a little over 1 o’clock as they lay in their double-decker beds, worries clouding their minds while they toss and turn in the dark.

“Hyung, do you think we can all make it to the top 11?” Daehwi’s voice rings out clear and steady in the hollow silence of the room. Woojin makes a noise of assent as he kicks at Youngmin’s mattress above him.

“Well, of course! We’ve practised so hard for this, and all this effort will definitely pay off. Just sleep well now, and we’ll do even better tomorrow, okay?” Youngmin is way too cheery for such a late hour at night, but when is he isn’t, really.

“Hey, what if you meet your soulmates there?” Donghyun butts in to ask Woojin and Daehwi, and Woojin swears to god he can practically hear Youngmin’s smile. Woojin’s own soulmark burns up a little as he goes through a million impossible scenarios in his head.

“Shh, what if the manager hears this? He’ll never stop nagging!” Daehwi giggles. The manager never stops fussing over Donghyun and Youngmin, so they wear long sleeves or bracelets, but mostly just intertwine their fingers together so their soulmarks press against each other. Donghyun once told him that his soulmark warms up pleasantly when they do that, smiling like a damn fool the whole time.

“I think it’ll be cool, though. Then you can go through all the hardships with them together.” Woojin’s voice is quiet. He can practically feel their grins in the dark.

“Aww, our little romantic! Did you forget about debuting already?” Donghyun teases, and the others chuckle. Woojin feels his cheeks heat up.

“It’s really late at night already, so go to sleep soon, alright? We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow,” Youngmin reminds them with a hint of sleepiness in his voice, and they murmur soft goodnights to each other before settling down to fall asleep.

The next day, they’re buzzing with nerves as soon as they wake up, rushing from place to place as they stuff last-minute items into their already-bursting suitcases. The manager yells for them and Donghyun rushes them out their dorms while Youngmin’s still pulling a comb through his hair. The van arrives soon after and they pile in.

The drive to the filming site is about 30 minutes, so they all sing along to the songs on the radio while the stylists dress them up with steady hands. Daehwi begs to run through their performance again, so they do.

They arrive in the blink of an eye, and the van pulls to a building with a massive CJ&M logo on it, just like the one Woojin’s seen countless of times on television as a kid. He’s the first one to step out of the van but before he can even look around, he’s met with a camera bigger than his head and a boom mic hanging precariously close to his face. His brain is still reeling from the shock of it all so he just stands there like an idiot, but Youngmin easily steps up from behind him and flashes a wide grin to the camera.

They do a short interview and get ushered inside to towering rows of chairs, just like those in the last season. Greeting the other trainees, the four of them sit in a corner and watch as others filter into the room. Daehwi and Donghyun, who still catch up with the celebrity news, whisper little comments about each group of trainees that walk into the room.

“Hey, aren’t they from Hotshot? You know, the group that debuted in 2014!” Donghyun asks incredulously. They rise to greet the two boys in question, then sit down again.

“Isn’t that kind of unfair to people that haven’t debuted?” Youngmin asks, surprised.

“Ah, you didn’t know? JJCC and Nu’est are joining too. I’m not sure why, but competition is still competition in the end,” Daehwi shrugs.

The Hotshot members are still hovering at the bottom of the staircase, staring up at the other trainees. They’re both kind of short, but something about them still catches Woojin’s attention. The one in green looks directly at him and Woojin swears his heart skips a beat at the sheer force of that stare. He coughs and looks away.

\---

Noh Taehyun really, really doesn’t believe in love. Not that it’s fake, or idealistic, or anything of that sort, it’s more that he doesn’t believe he’ll ever find it. He’s getting old and the whole world out there is still a distant dream to him. Not to mention, his soulmark only fully formed when he was 6, and it frankly scares him a little that his soulmate’s so much younger than him, yet their love is going to be the rare, pure kind that everyone raves on about.

So he doesn’t expect to accidentally make eye contact with some kid in a black jacket, who looks way too nervous at that moment. Said kid (whose name, Taehyun learns from his name tag, is Park Woojin) turns his head away quickly, and Taehyun makes a mental note in his head to go introduce himself later. Sungwoon pulls him to sit somewhere in the middle, and soon after that, the cameras start rolling.

He watches as countless of trainees perform their heart out on stage. Some are atrociously bad and others are surprisingly good, but he still tries his best to clap for each and every one of them. The judges aren’t so kind, however, and he can hear himself audibly wince at some of the things that they say.

When it comes to his and Sungwoon’s turn to perform, they shuffle backstage and wait with another group of trainees. Sungwoon sings quietly and Taehyun rehearses his moves inside his head for the umpteenth time. Before they know it, they’re stepping on stage to a scattering of applause. When the music starts, he ignores the pounding of his heart, closes his eyes and lets muscle memory take over.

Everything goes by in a blur of adrenaline and the exhilaration of being on stage again. Taehyun’s worry of being criticised for already debuting yet performing badly is swept away when they get loud applause and praise from the judges. Both of them get assigned to Rank A, which they happily celebrate backstage with a cheer.

Taehyun’s still buzzing when they return back to their seats, and lo and behold, the boy he saw earlier steps on stage with three other trainees. They introduce themselves as being from Brand New Music Entertainment, which is pretty shocking considering its hip-hop status.

“Ah, you composed, arranged, and choreographed this yourselves?” One of the judges asks in surprise, and the trainees all nod their heads eagerly. Taehyun widens his eyes too, especially when he sweeps his eyes over their young faces. They’re good competition, alright.

They show a solid performance, and Woojin proves to be a really capable rapper (and good-looking in his confidence too) as well as the choreographer of the whole performance, which is a feat in itself. He and another boy, Lee Daehwi, get Rank A, while the other two get sorted to Rank B. All of them thank the judges a little too happily again, and they leave the stage. Taehyun wonders if he was like that when he was a trainee as well.

The rest of the recording passes by uneventfully, and everyone wanders around the filming site while the producers occasionally call them to board the buses to the dorms. It turns out Sungwoon’s been keeping his eye on Daehwi, so they both make their way over to introduce themselves.

“Hello, we thought your performance was really good just now, so we came over to congratulate you scoring so well! We’re also gonna be in the same dorm room as some of you since we’re Rank A as well,” Sungwoon stumbles over his words at some point but his smile is still bright. Taehyun waves at them and tries to make eye contact with Woojin, but fails.

“Oh, hello! I’ve seen some of your stuff in Hotshot, it’s really an honour to be able to talk to you like this,” Daehwi enthuses, and Taehyun can already see the hearts in Sungwoon’s eyes. Sungwoon tugs self-consciously on the bracelets covering his soulmark, and this time Taehyun fake-coughs loudly. Sungwoon jumps half a foot into the air and glares at him. Taehyun just smiles back.

“What do you think the new title song is gonna sound like? I heard they’re going to show it to us the day after tomorrow,” Taehyun asks, elbowing Sungwoon.

“I think it’s going to be something more manly to emphasise us being, well, males. It’s definitely going to be a contrast to the previous season.” The one with red hair and a charming eye-smile, Youngmin, says. His arms are sprawled across the shoulders of Daehwi and the other trainee, Donghyun.

“It’s going to be difficult, I think. The bar is set really high this time,” Woojin speaks up in a quiet voice. He makes steady eye-contact with Taehyun and he swears he can feel his soulmark heat up a little, which is something that had never happened before. Taehyun pushes his thoughts aside and nods his head in agreement.

“Yeah, we’re really going to have to work hard this time ‘round.” Just as the words leave his mouth, the producers call for all Rank A trainees to board the next bus. The four of them wave goodbye to Donghyun and Youngmin, and quickly make their way outside. As he follows the others out, Taehyun wonders if this is the start of something new in his life.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trainees arrive at their dorms, practise the official song, and have general shenanigans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is so late im so sorry  
> but pls enjoy anyway!!

The bus ride to the dorms doesn’t take as long Taehyun expected it to be, and he barely grabs his luggage before he’s ushered through a door that proudly proclaims Rank A. There’s a total of 2 bunk beds and 2 single beds on top of closets facing each other in the atrociously small room. The walls are a frankly disgusting shade of green, and he squints at the sunlight filtering brightly through the curtainless windows.

“Aww yeah, bunk beds!” One of the kids, Samuel, cheers. Everyone dashes into the room and claims beds quickly.

Taehyun smiles as Sungwoon runs and jumps into one of the bottom bunks, before throwing his own stuff on the top bunk. Sungwoon’s weirdly hyper, but Taehyun suspects he’d just gotten Daehwi’s number while they were chatting on the bus.

Woojin and Daehwi take the bunk bed opposite theirs, with Daehwi climbing up to the top bunk and Woojin sprawling out on the bottom. Samuel and Daniel take the other two beds. They’re all younger than him, handsomer and brighter, more likely to gain fans quickly. Oh, well. He’ll just have to do it through the old-fashioned way.

“Ahh, it’s so good to lie on a bed again,” Samuel sighs. 

“You say that now, and in 10 minutes they’ll be screaming for us to go somewhere again,” Daniel shoots back. He’s the only one that doesn’t wear anything around his wrists, where your soulmark’s supposed to be. His wrists are oddly bare, but he doesn’t seem to care at all. Taehyun struggles to tear his eyes away from them.

Conversation trails off afterwards, and all of them talk over one another, voices mixing in the air, laughter cutting through the air occasionally. Taehyun just lays on his bed and closes his eyes, drinking in the reality of everything around him. He doesn’t join the conversation, but just lets the melody of voices flow through him like an endless river.

The voices rise suddenly, and when he lifts his head to look, they’re all crowded around the closet, pulling out bright pink clothes with the letter A emblazoned on them. He wants to sigh, but their bright smiles and excited voices give him the energy to jump out of bed to change into one, just to see them clap happily when everyone’s shirts match.

\--

Daniel turns out to be right, as they’re all herded back to the filming site right after lunch. He sticks close to Sungwoon as all the other trainees mill around waiting for the production crew to get ready. BoA walks out to greet them again, and with a flourish of her hand, she gestures to the large screen behind her. In the midst of everyone’s applause, the video introducing the official song flashes onscreen. 

The choreography looks doable, but the high notes make Taehyun nervous as he glances over to the other trainees. They all wear differing degrees of nervousness on their faces, but some look downright terrified. Everyone is quickly separated according to their ranks to practice as a group, so Taehyun joins back with the kids from his dorm to run through the new song.

Taehyun, being the oldest, takes charge of leading the rest of them as they go through a few vocal warmups before launching headfirst into the song. The high notes are just as impossible as Taehyun expected them to be, and he winces as some of their voices break badly. At least everyone’s good enough at dancing that he nods in satisfaction. He tells them to lower their voices during the high parts of the song if they can’t hit the proper notes, and their turn with the judges go by without a hitch, thank god.

Training drags down for what seems like hours. The trainees get progressively worse as the different ranks come up to practise in front of the trainers, and it doesn’t help that everyone’s been up at the asscrack of dawn to film early. He can see some of them losing momentum, getting ragged at the seams. Finally, BoA comes up to announce the end of the training session.

“Like last season, all of you will be filming an individual performance of this, and we’ll be judging them to rearrange your ranks for the official performance on MCountdown. Go back and practice this as much as possible, alright? I’m sure all of you will do well.” She tries to encourage everyone, but Taehyun can tell all of them were already too tired to care. They all clap afterwards anyway, and head back to the buses to call it a day. 

It’s dark outside already when they get out of the filming site and onto the bus, and Taehyun watches, transfixed, as the passing headlights cast orange shadows on Woojin’s face as he sits across from Sungwoon and Taehyun. Taehyun’s soulmark hasn’t stopped itching since he’d been here, but he’s trying his best to ignore it. He kind of knows what it means, that someone out there in this mess of trainees was his soulmate, but he just hopes he gets someone nice. It’s not like he can randomly go up touching people’s wrists, anyway. 

It’s strangely quiet in the dorm room now, their exhaustion taking over, and it becomes painfully obvious that everyone’s still strangers to one another. Taehyun gets to shower first, and he rolls his eyes when he hears the blasting music outside and the off-key voices that sing along. Music really does bonds people, huh. When he comes out of the bathroom, Daehwi and Samuel are dancing up a storm while Jinyoung, having arrived from the room next door, watches amusedly. Woojin looks up from his phone for a brief minute, before going back to scrolling his phone.

“C’mon, you danced to this just now, show us some moves!” Sungwoon eggs Jinyoung on from the sidelines, and he shakes his head, embarrassed, but Daehwi drags him up with a laugh. He dances just as well, if not better than in his performance, and Sungwoon and Daehwi squeal in delight. Taehyun watches the whole scene with a fond smile.

The music switches to another EXO song this time, and Daehwi laughs when Daniel tries to bust out a b-boy move only to slam his head against a bed-frame. He groans in exaggerated pain, but he ends up giggling along too.

“Hyung, show us something too!” Daniel shouts, and Taehyun huffs out a laugh but tosses his towel over his shoulder dramatically. He flips his wet hair backwards just to hear them laugh again, and slowly loses himself to the music as it towers and crashes over him. 

The heavy bass sends his body moving before he knows it, and when he opens his eyes, they’re all cheering at the top of their lungs. Samuel has his mouth hanging open, and Sungwoon just looks proud. Taehyun sneaks a look at Woojin, and Woojin sends a thumbs-up and a small smile back. Taehyun doesn’t stop the huge smile that breaks over his face, and he raises his arms in victory. 

“Woojin-ah, you should join in too,” he says, and everyone backs him up immediately. Woojin looks hesitant, but when Taehyun makes eye contact with him again, he jumps out of bed and joins them. 

Taehyun doesn’t expect a lot of skill from Woojin, not like Samuel or Ong Seongwoo, but he certainly doesn’t expect this. Woojin dances fluidly, movements smooth and practised as if he’d already rehearsed this a thousand times. His eyes are sharp focused, smile confident and a little cocky. He ends it with a beautiful backflip, stumbling a little at the end, but everyone’s already cheering loudly. Woojin smiles and does a little bow, and they clap even louder, Taehyun loudest of all.

It ends pretty quickly after that, but Taehyun goes to sleep with the thought of Woojin on his mind. 

\--

Woojin wakes up early, and groans when he remembers the schedule for the day. Training from dawn to dusk with a bunch of strangers and strict trainers? Not exactly his hobby. The room’s still dark, and a glance at the clock tells him that he’s woken up early by 35 minutes. The silence is punctuated by loud snores from Daniel’s bed, and Woojin snorts quietly as he sits up in bed. 

His muscles ache in protest from yesterday’s dance battle when he drags himself out of bed. He doesn’t mind really, he’s used to it by now, and it was worth it to watch Taehyun’s eyes widen in awe. Taehyun was clearly the most experienced dancer in the room, and that praise from him was amazing. It felt as if he’d accomplished something big, like climbing a mountain or winning the lottery, or saving the world. He liked that feeling.

Daehwi wakes up shortly afterwards, and he smiles gratefully when Woojin leaves the door open while he brushes his teeth. They’ve known each other long enough that it’s second nature to share a bathroom or sleep in the same bed. It’s comforting to have someone to lean on in such a foreign place, away from the hyungs. Daehwi rubs at his soulmark, frowning.

“Do you feel anything different about your soulmark? Mine’s been itching since yesterday and it’s really annoying,” he complains.

“Mine too, actually. Maybe because we’re around so many people all the time?” Woojin mumbles, toothbrush still in his mouth.

“Ooo, or maybe we’ve really found our soulmates this time! Then we’ll all debut together and live happily ever after,” Daehwi wiggles his eyebrows at him, and Woojin chokes, spitting out green toothpaste into the sink.

Daehwi’s squeal of disgust wakes the whole room, and Woojin doubles over in laughter as he hears a loud “Fuck!” and an even louder thump from outside. Maybe today will be alright, after all.

\---

Okay, maybe not.

Breakfast was mediocre, dance practice was okay, but vocal practice right now is definitely not. The vocal trainer sits behind a keyboard and stares them down. The atmosphere in the room is icy cold, and Woojin gulps.

All the A rank trainees are in the practice room, and they stand in a straight line in front of the vocal trainer, shifting from foot to foot. The silence is palpable in the room. Warmups were a mess of broken notes and loud scoldings. They haven’t even gone to the actual song yet but he was already scared out of his mind.

They sing the song together first, and the vocal trainer slowly runs through each of them individually. His eyebrows are drawn together tightly, face dark. With each failed notes, his mouth purses tighter and tighter. Woojin’s heartbeat quickens as his turn comes closer and closer after each trainee finished.

“Next trainee, Park Woojin,” the vocal trainer drawls. Woojin takes a deep breath, and dives headfirst into the song. It starts off well, but he fails miserably at the high notes, and winces badly despite himself. The trainer’s face softens a little.

“I’m glad you’re wincing at your own mistake. Hopefully, that means you can improve.” He says curtly, and leaves it at that. Woojin nods, relieved.

The day passes uneventfully after that, and he barely makes it back to the dorms before collapsing. Around him, everyone flops into their own beds as well. It was more tiring than anything he’d ever gone through, and it seems like it’ll only get worse.

“Today sucked,” Sungwoon declares, and they murmur in agreement. 

“At least we know how we can improve now, yeah?” Taehyun says, and everyone else boos him half-heartedly. It’s amazing how he can still be positive about everything, Woojin thinks, even after getting criticised so harshly all day.

“You suck too,” Sungwoon says, and Taehyun throws a pillow at him.

They squeeze into the bathroom in twos to speed things up, and it’s not long before Daniel switches off the lights. They murmur goodnights to each other and settle in to sleep.

It’s a little over midnight, and Woojin rolls over in his bed to see Taehyun already asleep in the bed across from his. The moonlight catches on his face, illuminates his features like an angel. Woojin’s soulmark flares up again, but he ignores it. He ignores the fluttering in his heart too, and closes his eyes, falling asleep before he knows it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hmu on tumblr @joydecoy  
> comments and constructive criticism is always appreciated!! thank u so much for reading and i luv u

**Author's Note:**

> hmu on joydecoy.tumblr.com  
> please leave comments or constructive criticism too, it really does make my day!


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